Yunlong County History

Yunlong can be traced back to 2000 years ago. The town was a very important salt mining spot in that time. It remains its traditional extraction method by burning wood to get salt. Today, it lives Bai minority there.

Yunlong County used to be a producing area of salt in Yunnan, thus, people called the road on which the salt was delivered Salt Horse Ancient Route. The road connects Lijiang City, Weixi Lisu Autonomous County, Baoshan City, Lingcang City, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Tengchong County, Myanmar and Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province.

Salt produced there was good, especially that output from Nuodeng Town and some nearby village in this county. Visitors can find five salt mines there. People living in the west Yunnan showed special preference to the salt. It was usually wrapped up with a red cloth as betrothal gifts from the bridegroom to the bride’s family in a wedding ceremony. Taxes from the salt had been a main income for the country from Tang Dynasty(618-907) to Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Having been necessary in people’s daily life, salt has made some officials related to salt.

Locals living around the five mines lived on it. Some of they delivered salt by horse to make a living. On the long road paved by slates, visitors can meet various of stone bridge. Even deep in the forest, it is not hard to see such kind of bridge over brooks.